Many systems, such as control systems, monitoring systems, and the like (collectively referred to herein as control systems), exist that allow the discovery of devices in the control system. However, contemporary mechanisms utilize discovery protocols that allow a device to bind to only a single master.
Conventional discovery and static binding routines require an administrator to make an explicit, manual choice of which master controller a device is bound. Some mechanisms provide an auto-bind option that facilitates a master controller to automatically bind to any device which matches a dynamic application device maintained by the master controller. However, contemporary auto-bind mechanisms may cause catastrophic, undefined results when multiple master controllers attempt to bind to the same physical device, e.g., physical devices that are not configured to be bound to multiple master controllers. Accordingly, static binding mechanisms are preferred in conventional systems when multiple master controllers are listening to the same multicast address for a common device type.
Numerous systems exist, such as Remote Monitoring Systems (RMSs), which include servers that must bind to multiple master controllers. Static binding mechanisms are typically employed if multiple masters monitor a common multicast address to avoid binding of devices to multiple controllers even if servers are deployed that must bind to multiple masters. Consequently, an administrator must disadvantageously manually bind the servers to each of the master controllers.
Therefore, what is needed is a device discovery mechanism that allows servers to automatically bind to multiple master controllers without collisions, thereby overcoming the need to manually bind each master controller.